A People's History of the United States
A People's History of the United States is a book published in 1980 (with another edition in 2003) by historian Howard Zinn which covers a history of the United States of America from the perspective of the oppressed underclass. As opposed to the perspective of economic, military and political elites that dominate most histories of the US. Summary Chapter 1: Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress The encounter between Christopher Columbus and the indigenous Arawak within what is the Bahamas was driven by the newly developing nation-states in Europe's desire for money and power as part of a growing colonial project that was taking hold in parts of Asia and Africa. Despite the Arawak showering the Spanish and Italian explorers and soldiers in gifts of gold, food, tools and shelter, a genocide was soon to begin. Columbus, who desired fame, wealth and power promised by the Spanish monarchy actively took credit for the actions of his crew and organized a campaign of terrorism against the Arawak. Many were taken in as a slaves and anyone who resisted were mutilated (often publicly) with swords and killed. Upon Columbus' second voyage, he began a campaign of sex trafficking of Arawak women and children, anyone who tried to run away were hunted and killed by packs of dogs owned by the colonizers. He ordered Arawaks to find enough gold to impress his investors (which he had lied to) and cut off the hands of those who failed to find enough. Arawaks formed various armed cells in order to end colonialism and retake what had been stolen, but they faced an army of men with guns and metal armour which would hang them for at any sign of resistance. Capitalism was born in a tsunami of blood, rape and genocide, seen by the Spanish as numbers on a ledger. The treatment of Arawak was so horrible that numerous Spanish priests cried out for the soldiers to stop. Pointing out that the Arawak had constructed a relatively advanced civilization, but the colonists ignored this for monetary reasons. Cases of depression, suicide, physical exhaustion, infant mortality and malnutrition exploded under the Arawak, and around three million of them were killed in 12 years. Despite clear evidence of this from primary sources, pro-Columbus historians have repeatedly ignored or omitted these facts. All history is nothing but ideology, designed to make murder and wars seem acceptable and natural, rather than the product of particular political, economic and social arrangements, and Howard Zinn aims to counter these narratives by telling history through an anti-state, anti-capitalist and anti-racist angle. The Aztecs, Incas, Powhatan, Pequot all had their various villages, towns and cities burned down as a way to extract their wealth for the landowners and speculators and investors who funded the colonial venture into the Americas. Early capitalism began it's process of primitive accumulation by wiping out entire civilizations and ethnic groups. It became increasingly difficult to enslave indigenous americans, as they were able to escape, hide and kill their slave masters. So colonizers resorted to a war of extermination, justifying their actions through concepts like civilizing, god, property and human progress (as they burned down homes, raped women and killed millions).How this is any different to Stalin's or Churchill's murderous campaigns against ethnic minorities or the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains a mystery. Many upper-class and political elites will saying it was 'necessary' for 'progress' to do this. But they never asked how the poor, indigenous, downtrodden, women, LGBT people or conscripted soldiers for their voice in this 'march of progress'. These episodes of brutality, showing us the worst of humanity, were only to accumulate a little more power in a great game being played all over Europe. Not to mention how indigenous americans had built civilizations comparable to ancient Egypt, Sumer, China, Rome and Greece (in terms of size, population and technology) despite less time and resources. Huge cities spread out across North America, and civilizations had advanced cultures, philosophies and political systems (notably the Haudenosaunee). In contrasts to Europe's authoritarian, patriarchal and capitalist nature, much of indigenous North America was libertarian and decentralized, had gender equality and communism. Chapter 2: Drawing the Color Line External Links *A People's History of the United States at historyisaweapon.com Category:Books Category:Howard Zinn Category:Libertarian Socialist Wiki Category:USA